Treasured by Dragons

Detour into the Hibiscus Realm

Time passed in a haze. I was confined in the cabin, only allowed to walk on the deck for fresh air when Talluan deigned to escort me, always after sunset. "All the better to protect the princess from the sailors' lowborn eyes," he had sneered. When he knocked on the door one morning to tell me to prepare to disembark, it had seemed both endless and too short for a journey to Shengxin.

I arranged my hair into a simple bun, not knowing how to do a more elaborate style. Over a clean slip, I put on the red and gold gown that I had set aside days ago. It was the best one I had, and there had been no gown provided for my conferral to the Crown Prince.

A small voice chirped in the back of my head to try disappearing again. Perhaps I could sneak out of the vinta, perhaps I could purchase passage back to Silang with the silver in my purse, perhaps—

Consort Mei entered the cabin. I had last seen her two decades ago, before she entered the Emperor's harem. But she didn't spare time for greetings, and examined me by the sunshine streaming through the door. Her nose wrinkled. "Your grandparents didn't even provide a maid for you?"

They might've, if she hadn't insisted to my grandparents that they don't need to send me to Shengxin with anything. In her letter convincing them to appoint me as tribute, she had promised that I would be furnished with everything I could possibly need.

Long, bony fingers yanked the pins off my hair and I bit down a complaint. "While you're supposed to be presented wearing your homeland's costume, you can't pin your hair up. In Shengxin, that's only for married women." To her maids, she instructed, "There's no time for an ornate coiffure, so just braid it."

They surrounded me, combing and plaiting with such efficiency that I didn't have time to register the scraping, tugging pain. My veil was reattached to barely cover my head, pinned under my tiara and draped along the sides of the braid like an oversized ribbon.

The change earned an aloof nod from Consort Mei and she started to head out—I nearly bumped into her when she swiveled back. She plucked off my earrings and necklace, the black pearls given by my mother.

My jaw dropped in protest. She knew whom they had belonged to. Even though I was a small child, I distinctly remembered her clucking her tongue and sighing that my mother only had a set of black pearls to show for being a prince's concubine. "But..."

"It doesn't suit your gown, how could you present yourself to the Crown Prince that way?" She stared me in the eye and pocketed the pearls.

Bile burned in my chest, but I dug my nails into my palms and set my face in stone as I returned her stare.

She swept out on the deck and I followed with wooden steps. Eunuchs were in wait to help us across the plank, along with a guard escort. The bustling harbor sprawled out, far wider than the one in my hometown. More structured, it had walkways and orderly rows of ships, instead of a few spindly docks scattered on the beach.

"This is Xinan..?" I almost stumbled, climbing into a carriage after Consort Mei, my eyes snared by the unfamiliar scenery.

"How could the imperial capital be this provincial?" She sniffed. "This is the city of Hayan Song. The Crown Prince has honored the people with a visit, as the Emperor's envoy."

Hayan Song, in Geunhwa, another tributary of Shengxin. To me, the people here resembled the Sheng; paler than the average Silanganan, with sharper eyes.

A salty breeze blew into the carriage window, the chill nipping through the thin silks of my gown. I hid my hands under the thicker brocade of my shawl. It was colder than the cold and dry season in the Seventeenth Domain of Silang.